The Insidious Film Series – How It Works

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The Insidious film series might be one of the most compelling and mind-bottling horror film series to date.

If you’ve been catching up with all the movies, you’d know that the timelines are all over the place. Started by James Wan (Malaysian pride!) back in 2010, one thing references another and you would need to watch the previous films to get what they’re talking about.

With the release of the 4th installment – Insidious: The Last Key, there are mixed feelings of how the story went about.

Even though Insidious is sort of like your typical horror movie – jumpscares and demonic entities possessing an innocent soul, it still captures the audiences’ attention and gets them on the edge of their seats every time with its confusing timeline and wicked plots.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

The Timeline:

The series isn’t straightforward with its chronology. It jumps back and forth as if time-travelling over the course of the films.

Insidious: The Last Key is the first movie, chronologically but it also consists parts of Chapter 3. It takes place in the 1950s when Elise was still a child. We are taken back to her abusive childhood home where we learn more about the emergence of her gift. She assisted in the summoning of a demon called “Key Face” into our realm. Many years past and she gets a call from a client who bought her childhood home, leading her to return to it and uncover much of the dark secrets that linger in that house.

The next is Insidious: Chapter 2 and is set in the 80s and will jump to 2010. Elise is contacted by Lorraine Lambert, whose son, Josh, is being disturbed by a demon called the “Black Bride”. Josh has gifts much like Elise’s – the ability to project his mind into the Astral Plane (The Further) while asleep. A decade later, the demon finds its way to Josh’s son, Dalton, who has similar gifts as his father. This film jumps back and forth with the timelines, referencing the past to something important in the future and vice versa.

Next, it’s Insidious: Chapter 3 as well as bits of Insidious: The Last Key. It’s set in the 2000s. This is between the time when Elise first meets young Josh in the 80s and adult Josh in 2010. This film saw Elise being contacted by a new face – Quinn Brenner, a young girl who is desperate to make contact with her dead mom. Elise senses a demonic presence lingering with Quinn and urges her to stop her attempts. Quinn, of course, does not listen and is soon haunted by a dark entity called “The Man Who Can’t Breathe.” After the whole ordeal, she partners up with Specs and Tucker as her researchers. Fast forward a bit and we’ll see Elise being contacted to return to her childhood home in the 4th and latest installment of the series.

Last but not least – it’s Insidious as well as Insidious: Chapter 2. Not long after her ordeal with “Key Face” in The Last Key, Elise is contacted by Lorraine Lambert who says her son, Josh, is being plagued by a demon. This is shown in the last scene of The Last Key. With Josh’s son, Dalton, in a coma, Elise sends Josh into The Further to save his son. They manage to escape the “Red-Faced Demon” that has been following Elise for a while but Josh was ambushed by the “Black Bride” that tormented Josh when he was a child in Chapter 2. He is secretly possessed by the demon and Elise realization of this lead to her doom in the hands (literally) of the “Black Bride.” From there, we see Chapter 2 unfold Specs, Tucker and Elise’s colleague, Carl, contact Elise’s spirit in order to help them solve this. It leads to the story of the “Black Bride” and his past as well as Josh’s spirit’s true location.

As you can see, most of the movies are prequels to the first movie. It gives you the story, without a backstory to make room for the next movie.

The 4th installment of the series – Insidious: The Last Key, dives in deep into Elise’s past, which was never really mentioned before.
We saw little Elise growing up with her gifts and how her father despised it. We saw the trauma she had to go through just because of her powers. We see yet another demon plotting to use Elise to their advantage.

Even though each plot of all the Insidious films seem to be similar to one another, you can’t help but be immerse in it due to its beloved characters and time-travelling storylines.

The fact that each movie relates to the other in the slightest but most important way possible, works. It gets you wondering and yearning for more and also wanting to rewatch or watch the previous movies.

Insidious is unoriginally original and there is nothing quite like it.